Attempting to reassure anxious donors, Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday outlined a road map she said she will follow to beat Barack Obama in the Ohio and Texas primaries March 4.
Clinton insisted that her campaign is on track and moving forward, despite losing 11 contests to Obama since Feb. 5.
"I am very optimistic and extremely positive about what we're doing as we go forward in these states," Clinton said of Ohio and Texas, two delegate-rich states on which she has pinned the future of her candidacy.
"I hear with increasing frequency, 'Don't give up, you're going to win,'" she said.
Differences on the issues
The former first lady pledged to continue to stress her differences with Obama on issues including universal health care, and said she will step up her criticism of the Illinois senator's lack of experience in public life.
"We're going to emphasize more and more the experience gap," Clinton told several hundred supporters who had paid at least $500 to attend a Boston fundraiser. "You'll hear a lot about it the next eight days."
The New York senator said the posters voters are bringing to her events indicate that the issue of experience is coming to the forefront.
"When I first started, it was 'You Go Girl,' 'Women Making History,' all about the pioneering nature of my candidacy," Clinton said. Recently, she said, the signs had changed.
"In Houston last night, it was, 'We Want Experience, Not An Experiment,' and 'The White House Is No Place for Training Wheels,'" she said.
Campaign coverage
Clinton blamed her woes in part on unfair press coverage but said she believed Obama had come under increased media scrutiny in recent days. She urged the group to watch the latest episode of "Saturday Night Live," which featured a skit mocking last Thursday's CNN debate as little more than a love fest for Obama.
"People are starting to say, 'Hey, you know, we've got two candidates. We've been a little more focused on one than the other in terms of asking hard questions. Let's start looking at both of them. The voters of this country deserve to have a real election,'" she said.
Still, Clinton expressed frustration that her rival's record and questions about his health care reform plan had drawn little attention from national reporters.
"We can't get the press to cover this _ what he says about his plan is not true," Clinton said of Obama's health plan, which he calls universal but which doesn't include a requirement that everyone purchase coverage, as hers does.
"You base your campaign on the politics of hope, and you're hoping people won't notice," she added.
Clinton also lamented being outspent by Obama in several early voting states, despite burning through nearly $130 million of her own.
Clinton attended three fundraisers Sunday, pulling in over $500,000 for her campaign. Earlier, she attended a rally and health care roundtable in Rhode Island, which also holds its primary March 4.